Abstract: Radiative (B) over bar (0)((B) over bar (0)(s)) -> J/psi gamma decays provide an interesting case to test our understanding of ( non) perturbative QCD and eventually to probe physics beyond the standard model. Recently, the LHCb Collaboration reported an upper bound, updating the results of the BABAR Collaboration. Previous theoretical predictions based on QCD factorization or perturbative QCD have shown large variations due to different treatment of nonfactorizable contributions and meson-photon transitions. In this paper, we report on a novel approach to estimate the decay rates, which is based on a recently proposed model for B decays and the vector meson dominance hypothesis, widely tested in the relevant energy regions. The predicted branching ratios are Br[(B) over bar (0) -> J/psi gamma] = (3.50 +/- 0.34(-0.63)(+1.12)) x 10(-8) and Br[(B) over bar (0)(s) -> J/psi gamma] = (7.20 +/- 0.68(-1.30)(+2.31)) x 10(-7). The first uncertainty is systematic and the second is statistical, originating from the experimental (B) over bar (0)(s) -> J/psi gamma branching ratio.

Abstract: We analyze the Stern-Gerlach experiment in phase space with the help of the matrix Wigner function, which includes the spin degree of freedom. Such analysis allows for an intuitive visualization of the quantum dynamics of the device. We include the interaction with the environment, as described by the Caldeira-Leggett model. The diagonal terms of the matrix provide us with information about the two components of the state that arise from interaction with the magnetic field gradient. In particular, from the marginals of these components, we obtain an analytical formula for the position and momentum probability distributions in the presence of decoherence that shows a diffusive behavior for large values of the decoherence parameter. These features limit the dynamics of the present model. We also observe the decay of the nondiagonal terms with time and use this fact to quantify the amount of decoherence from the norm of those terms in phase space. From here, we can define a decoherence time scale, which differs from previous results that make use of the same model. We analyze a typical experiment and show that, for that setup, the decoherence time is much smaller than the characteristic time scale for the separation of the two beams, implying that they can be described as an incoherent mixture of atoms traveling in the up and down directions with opposite values of the spin projection. Therefore, entanglement is quickly destroyed in the setup we analyzed.

Abstract: We show that in the Higgs triplet model, after the Higgs discovery, the mixing angle in the CP-even sector can be strongly constrained from unitarity. We also discuss how large quantum effects in h -> gamma gamma may arise in a Standard-Model-like scenario and a certain part of the parameter space can be ruled out from the diphoton signal strength. Using T-parameter and diphoton signal strength measurements, we update the bounds on the nonstandard scalar masses.

Abstract: Many models of physics beyond the standard model predict the existence of new Abelian forces with new gauge bosons mediating interactions between “dark sectors” and the standard model. We report a search for a dark boson Z' coupling only to the second and third generations of leptons in the reaction e(+)e(-) -> mu(+)mu(-) Z', Z' -> mu(+)mu(-) using 514 fb(-1) of data collected by the BABAR experiment. No significant signal is observed for Z' masses in the range 0.212-10 GeV. Limits on the coupling parameter g' as low as 7 x 10(-4) are derived, leading to improvements in the bounds compared to those previously derived from neutrino experiments.

Abstract: We present a generalized theoretical framework for dealing with the important issue of dynamical mass generation in Yang-Mills theories, and, in particular, with the infrared finiteness of the gluon propagators, observed in a multitude of recent lattice simulations. Our analysis is manifestly gauge invariant, in the sense that it preserves the transversality of the gluon self-energy, and gauge independent, given that the conclusions do not depend on the choice of the gauge-fixing parameter within the linear covariant gauges. The central construction relies crucially on the subtle interplay between the Abelian Ward identities satisfied by the nonperturbative vertices and a special integral identity that enforces a vast number of “seagull cancellations” among the one-and two-loop dressed diagrams of the gluon Schwinger-Dyson equation. The key result of these considerations is that the gluon propagator remains rigorously massless, provided that the vertices do not contain (dynamical) massless poles. When such poles are incorporated into the vertices, under the pivotal requirement of respecting the gauge symmetry of the theory, the terms comprising the Ward identities conspire in such a way as to still enforce the total annihilation of all quadratic divergences, inducing, at the same time, residual contributions that account for the saturation of gluon propagators in the deep infrared.